Mensud Keleštura and Hazim Jašarević denied guilt for the crime in Vitez committed in June 1993, that is, participation in the artillery attack in which eight Croatian children were killed and five were wounded.
Mensud Keleštura and Hazim Jašarević are accused of participating in an artillery attack on the civilian population of the suburban settlement of Podgradina on June 10, 1993.
Keleštura, in his capacity as the commander of the 325th Mountain Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is accused of ordering the subordinate Brigade Artillery Group (BrAG) to carry out an artillery attack on Podgradina, which was inhabited almost exclusively by the civilian population of Croatian nationality, even though he was aware that this attack, carried out during the armistice and in a populated place, could lead to civilian casualties.
Jašarević is accused that, as the commander of the BrAG, he executed that order through subordinate members of the artillery group and that he also knew that it was not a military objective and that there could be consequences for the civilian population, to which he agreed.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported earlier that members of BrAG subordinate to Jašarević fired a 120 millimeter artillery mortar mine from the Podlazine locality, which fell between family houses, on the children’s playground “Kod Koša”, on which occasion, as a result of the mine explosion, eight Croatian children were killed and five more were wounded.
Given that the accused denied guilt, the case will be forwarded to the Council, which will schedule the start of the trial, reports BIRN BiH.
